The
UCAR childcare center

For HR’s Kristen Alipit, the timing could hardly
be better. She’s expecting her first child in May—just a
few months before the opening of the new UCAR childcare center.

“I am very excited about the center,” says Kristen, who may
place her child there. “It would be extremely convenient for me,
working just a couple of blocks away.”

Denise Moulton and her daughter, Skylar.

The center will be located at 3050 34th Street, just north of Valmont
Road. The UCAR Board of Trustees approved the purchase of the property
in February. Over the next few months, UCAR will renovate the building
(which formerly housed a childcare center and most recently was the site
of the Sojourner School) and contract with a provider to run the center.
If all goes as planned, the first children will be playing there by the
end of the summer.

Katy Schmoll, vice president for finance and administration, explains
that the new center underscores UCAR’s commitment to a family-friendly
workplace. It will help the organization recruit and retain workers.

“It’s a commitment to providing the level of amenities that
attract a diverse workforce,” says Katy, who has been a leading
advocate for the childcare center. “Daycare is not something that’s
easy to come by for parents, and having a center in this location is
very attractive.”

Those who work at the Mesa Lab also may be getting a new childcare option.
UCAR is exploring whether staffers could get some sort of preferred status
at the Commerce Children’s Center, located at the site of the NOAA/NIST
labs on Broadway south of Baseline Road. Katy isn’t sure yet what
the preferred status would entail, but at times in the past UCAR/NCAR
staffers, like members of the public, have faced significant waiting
lists to enroll their children in the center.

More than 60 staffers have already expressed interest in finding out
more about the new UCAR center and potentially sending their children
there. “I think it’s a wonderful thing that UCAR is doing,” says
F&A’s Denise Moulton, who is thinking of placing her six-month-old
daughter, Skylar, in the center. “It gives parents a comfortable
feeling by having their children so close to them.”

The center, with five classrooms, will have a capacity of about 70 children,
from infants through preschoolers. Because children of staffers alone
are unlikely to fill the center, UCAR is negotiating with other organizations,
such as Boulder Community Hospital and the CU Credit Union, to see
about bringing on a partner to help fill the slots.

Additional issues are being tackled by a childcare committee. These include
soliciting proposals from potential providers, renovating the 34th Street
property, and determining how the new center will be governed. (For a
list of committee members, see below.)

One of the attractions of the new center, in addition to its location,
is that parents will serve on a board that will oversee its operations.
UCAR’s goal is to have the center eventually certified by the National
Association for the Education of Young Children, which would place it
among the finest centers in the area. Tuition will be competitive with
other local centers.

UCAR has budgeted $1.1 million to buy and renovate the 34th Street property.
The money comes out of the organization’s general fund, which has
been used for special projects such as launching SOARS and hiring a class
of new scientists. The general fund is not used for salaries, and Katy
emphasizes that the center will not compete with other budget priorities.

The purchase caps several years of efforts to provide staffers with a
childcare option. In 1999, a review by the American Physical Society
recommended that UCAR investigate establishing or buying into a daycare
center. Employees expressed interest in a daycare center in an internal
survey on work/life balance issues in 2001. Two years later, more than
300 staffers signed a petition asking UCAR to continue to explore the
issue.

Staffers can direct questions about the center to DLESE’s Peter
Burkholder (ext. 2663); or F&A’s Tammy
Kepple (ext. 8565), who are handling communications for the
childcare committee. •David Hosansky